Organizational Culture

ABSTRACT

Organizational culture is made up of all the diverse experiences of every person who brings into the organization and is especially influenced by the each members own individual cultural backgrounds. Culture is symbolized in different languages, symbols, decision making and the daily work practices. A common culture is built up in the organization so that each one could follow a similar attitude and belief in the workplace and the firm can present a positive environment to its employees and also the people outside the organization could easily assess the image of the company. Organizational culture includes the way any individual or a group interact and converse a message to each other, their customers and stakeholders. Corporate culture is provided to every existing and any of the new members of an organization that could help them to get familiar with the environment and culture of the workplace.Organizational culture basically conveys the message among the workforce on the basic beliefs and ideas that need to be pursued by each of them in order to attain their respective corporate aims and objectives. Corporate culture is a significant factor that affects the internal as well as the external environment of the business and helps to build in useful analytical tool for the organization. The culture of any of the organization should be designed in such a manner that it could be easily accepted by everyone and should be made in lieu with the existing and new employee’s common culture. It is very much important to built in a common culture in the workplace as it helps in promoting healthy competition in the office and people perform in a more organized and proficient manner that their fellow workers in order to earn admiration and appreciation of their superiors.This research report is conducted to gain an in-depth knowledge about the organizational culture and its significance in the current environment and how it is beneficial for the employees working in an organization. In this respect an analysis is being done on one of the leading computer brands i.e. Hewlett-Packard (hp) focus was given on assessment of the culture of this company and how it manages to shape the culture in various nations. In this study a secondary research was being carried out and many of the scholarly journals and articles were being reviewed to gain an insight about this firm and how it manages the several different challenges that are being faced during the enforcement of culture.

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1.1. INTRODUCTION

Organizational culture is a vivid term that reflects the personality of a company that is comprised of various assumptions, significance, standards and tangible objects of organizational members and their activities. Culture is an environmental factor that surrounds every individual all of the time; it is one of the significant elements that shapes atmosphere of work, relationship with work and the work processes (Alvesson, 2002). In an organizational context culture is something that could not be seen and can only be observed and felt in the work place. Culture of an organization can be looked at as a system that provides a composite image of the organization; culture helps a firm to distinguish it from other organizations. Culture is described as a system of shared meaning, it is expected that every individual with various backgrounds or at different levels in the company will be liable to define the culture of organization in a similar manner (Flamholtz, and Randle, 2011).

1.2. LITERATURE REVIEW

A culture is made up of several values, attitudes, beliefs, assumptions and behaviors mutually shared by a group of people. It is the performance or activities that results when a group assembles generally to work on a common platform (Martin, 2001). In an organization the culture is represented in a varied manner because a number of people work together in a firm and each employee brings in varied experiences of life to the organization. Organizational culture is built in mainly by the top level employees who are the founder of the company and other managerial personnel as they play a major role in the decision making process. Hence, it could be said that organizational culture is the sum total of a company’s past and present experiences, values and philosophy that combines the organization in total and is represented in its self image, working atmosphere and dealings with the outside world (Martin and et al., 1991). Culture basically represents the shared beliefs, attitudes, customs, set of rules that an organization develops over the time period.

1.3. COMPANY BACKGROUND

This research report focuses on analyzing the cultural differences in organizations and how Hewlett-Packard (hp) is shaping its organizational culture. Hewlett-Packard is a US based Multinational Corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP is one of the biggest information technology companies and operates in near about the entire nation. It focus on developing and producing computers, networking hardware, data storage, devising software’s and delivers various kinds of services (Hewlett-Packard, 2012). This organization was founded in the year 1939 in a one car garage by two friends Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard and toady it is the world’s leading manufacturer and producer of computers. It mainly markets its products to households, enterprises, small and medium sized businesses through online distribution, retailers, technology vendors and other software partners (McGrath, 2008.).

1.4. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The main aim of the study is to evaluate the organizational culture of Hewlett-Packard (HP) and how it is shaping the culture. In this context the aims contribute towards some of the following objectives:

To examine the organizational culture and behavior theories as they are applied to enterprises.

To assess the effects of cultural differences on overall performance of an organization.

To evaluate the role of management in managing cross culture within the organization and among its employees.

To analyze how HP is managing and shaping its organizational culture.

1.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

It is a scientific method that relies on creative work undertaken to enhance the existing knowledge and use those wisdom to devise new applications, it is basically used for survey on a particular research and is used to establish facts (Torchim, 2001). In this report secondary data collection method will be used for this different journal, articles, books and publications of various authors will be reviewed. The research survey would be conducted among two different nations i.e. India and UK, the researcher will try to find out the difference in organizational culture of Hewlett-Packard in these two nations and how does it shapes the culture (Marczyk, DeMatteo and Festinger, 2010). The researcher will make an attempt to finish of the study within the specified time period and will follow all the ethical procedure that are required during the process of research and all the accumulated results and identity of the respondents would be kept confidential.

1.6. RESEARCH QUESTION

In a research report the survey questions helps in providing precise direction to the study in order to complete the research that could be undertaken in an effective manner. Research questions aids in forming an appropriate structure towards the aims and objectives of report in an analytical way. In this context the specific questionnaire for this research report will highlight the significance of organizational culture and on the methods and scope through which the company Hewlett-Packard shapes its organizational culture.

1.7. RESEARCH RATIONALE

Research is being conducted to obtain specified information on a particular area, this research report is having significance in the area of human resource management in which one of the leading factor organizational culture will be given due attention and in this respect the leading company in terms of manufacturing and producing computers all around the world i.e. HP will be reflected and due significance will be given on the cultural policies of the organization and how it shapes the organizational culture with its employees in two different nations will be reviewed through this research report (Pfister, 2009). Culture of an organization represents the collective beliefs, values and behavior of the employees; it is formed by the values of a company, vision and mission, language of working, process, system and symbols that are being used in the organization. In every organization a common culture is being followed because people from diverse cultural and regional backgrounds work under single umbrella so, it is very much important that a collective set of belief and behavior should be implemented so that every employee could communicate with each other successfully.

This research study will give focus on assessing the importance of organizational culture and how HP is shaping its corporate culture. HP is a leading technology service provider to corporate, individuals and institutions globally; this organization focuses a lot in providing an amazing and respectable culture to its employees (Witte, 2000). Hewlett-Packard’s scope of business is vast in size and structure and company is operated worldwide with various facilities of research and innovation. The main philosophy that is being implemented in this organization is that they provide autonomy to their employees in work and at the same time offer efficient teamwork and knowledge sharing culture in order to maintain the line of communication and collaboration in a well-organized manner (Hewlett-Packard Case Study, n.d). The information collected in this research report would be beneficial for various human resource personnel’s and the management of the organization to evaluate the existing policies of organizational culture and the areas where modification is required.

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1.8. STUDY ON HP AND IBM ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

A positive organizational culture provides a great work environment where employees are motivated and work for the attainment of common organizational objectives. The best way to build up a pleasant and create a successful team is through fun working environment and promotes employee interaction; it means that the company should try to avoid the situation of lack of communication and stressful working atmosphere. In this context two of the most renowned information technology industries i.e. hp and IBM’s organizational culture is being reviewed to assess their ways of working and motivating its staff members.First and the foremost thing for any of the organization is to identify is its culture, whether the environment is more of formal or informal in nature or is it family business. IBM and hp both of the companies are in computer business, in terms of culture IBM is following more of formal and stoic culture whereas, hp is having more of informal i.e. casual work environment. Secondly, the organization should communicate about its culture among its workforce that what it wants from its employees and could summarize the mission of business in a short form (Milberg, 2009).

After reviewing some of the journals and articles on organizational culture of hp and IBM it was found that there is lot many disparity in both the companies work environment and culture for its employees. IBM follows a rigid and prescribed form of work surroundings and demands that their employee should only focus on the work they are being assigned. In contrary to this hp has implemented a very adaptable and flexible working ambiance where everyone is offered an area for creativity and innovation and is led free to achieve new heights in business. Both the organizations are a strong competitor for each other and are serving equal customer base, the analysis of various reports have showed that hp is performing in a much better way than the other one. It is due to the reason that hp is committed towards innovation a lot and it is because of this the company invested $3.3 billion in research & development and IBM invested $6 billion in the year 2011. In spite of such difference hp’s net annual revenue was greater than IBM i.e. of $127 billion and of IBM $106.9 billion (Rasmussen, 2012).In the aspect of offering a work culture hp leads ahead than IBM because it has been observed that majority of people and clients are interest to work with hp. The culture of hp includes some of the basic attributes like; opinions flow freely in hp as compared to the other company, in this context it has been visualized that hp provides an environment where employees do not hesitate to interact with their superiors and the level of communication is very much strong among each of the members (Harrer, 2008). IBM has implemented a stiff and strict principle of work culture in its work place, due to this many of the times it has been noticed that employees do not speak well off about their organization and even does not recommend anyone to be part of their firm, this ultimately creates a bad word of mouth for the company. In such circumstances hp has molded itself with the prevailing atmosphere of the region and people, for instance it has a difference of work culture in UK and India. In India hp offers distinguished work culture like option for spilt shifts, work from home, high level of power distance in organization etc, all these has been done matching with the Indian work culture.

There are several other attributes due to which hp is recognized for offering a world class organizational environment to its workforce, it often provides outstanding rewards and benefits to its employees that gives a better sense of value and growth to them. These were few of the reasons of choosing hp as compared to IBM, because a research on it will provide a deep and profound knowledge on the organizational culture (Ford, 2007).

1.9. STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH

The accomplished research should be a structured piece of work that is performed in a chronological order, each and every step of the reviewed work are mutually dependent on each other and hence appropriate composition of all the steps are need to be done in a sequence of varied chapters. This research report is also assembled in a series of chapters and a brief of all the chapter that are being included in the research report is as follows:Chapter 1: Introduction – In this section a clear idea of the defined research subject and its background is assessed in a comprehensive manner. The aim of the report is being discussed under precise headings and a research rationale is also being included in this section as it will give a defined set of aspects of the topic (Ogbonna and Harris, 2002). Other than this a short discussion on the various methods of research is also included in this section, this is done to provide a concise idea of the research methodology that would be carried out in subsequent chapters. In this section a detailed case study has been discussed on the organizational culture of HP and IBM, the main factor that is been discussed here is the culture and tradition followed in both the organization.Chapter 2: Literature Review – This is the second chapter of the formulated research report and this section includes the various information of organizational culture in the form of a literature survey. It is one of the most significant parts of the research report as keeping in mind all the main topic of the study, some suitable and valuable academic and scholarly articles and journals are chosen and are defined in the perspective of the issue of project. The literature review in this research report is ultimately aimed to highlight the significance of organizational culture in firms and how the leading IT industry HP manages to shape its culture among large number of employees (Bollinger and Smith, 2001). In this part various journals and articles will be assessed to acquire an in depth knowledge about the various aspects and importance of culture in an organization.Chapter 3: Research Methodology – It is the third chapter of the dissertation writing and will reflect about the various methodologies that are being used in order to collect and analyze the accumulated data. This part of the report will also provide validation to the method of research and with the help of diverse research philosophies and approaches. Other than this numerous factors like validity and reliability of research, ethical considerations is also being defined with equal importance in order to maintain the exactness of research (Flick, 2011).Chapter 4: Findings - Under this section, the results from the Secondary data collected are developed. Findings are mainly composed according to the nature of the collected data, in this research project the findings derived from the secondary data is represented in a qualitative form as all the information will be accumulated through interview method and respective themes will be prepared from the result generated and proper evaluation would be done to gain the insights of the respondents.Chapter 5: Discussion and Analysis – In this section of the report the results that are generated from the collected data would be evaluated and argued, further to sustain the findings of the data various literary concepts that are included in the literature review will be reviewed to achieve the most reliable results (Huck, 2000).Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendations – This chapter of the report will define results of the findings that are described in line with the objectives of the research (O’Reilly, Chatman and Caldwell, 1991). Besides this the limitations of the study are also integrated in the report, few useful and functional recommendations are also projected for future research work as well as for the management of various organizations to develop more understanding about the culture and its importance in the working environment.

1.10 CONCLUSION

The most significant element in order to build up a successful organization and an amazing workplace is the organizational culture. It is generally the set of values and beliefs that functions in any of the organization and the manner in which the employees behave in the working environment. An effective corporate culture is important as it maximizes the value of human capital and appropriate work culture is necessary for success of an organization. Hence, in this report a brief discussion and analysis would be done to assess the importance of organizational culture in today’s era.